Heroic Spirits Of Olympus: The Lost Hero

"Call Me the Mechanic"

Leo saw a new side to Nero that day.

Her tears, her anguish at being unloved, at dying without anyone to care for her in her final moments.

Leo couldn't say he related to that quite a bit. But he had a sense of it. The pain of being alone, of using jokes and extravagance to hide your pain. And in that sense, he knew he could never leave Nero alone, or find himself without Nero. 

To be any less than together would be beyond pain. Especially given how far they had already come on this journey. 

And it was why when Alcides landed in front of them, Leo immediately clutched Nero's hand protectively. 

This wasn't going to be like Festus. He wasn't going to lose another friend, not this time.

"You.. you hurt Festus." Leo was about to say, but the weird goddess crashed the party before he could. 

Ishtar now floated down quietly, her eyes ignited golden as her Boat of Heaven, Maana floated down behind her. 

"Leo, Piper, Nero, are you okay?" She asked quietly, her voice no longer spoke in the belittling flaunty tone she used before, but rather in a serious angered tone, a tone that spoke the anger of the Mesopotamian gods. 

"Y-yeah." Leo said. "For the most part."

"Good. The Hunters are on their way Archer, but I don't think I'll require the reinforcements." Ishtar growled as the room began to tremble from the density of her power crashing down on the place. "I'll reduce this man to cinders before they even arrive."

"You could just fly us out." Archer began.

"Kotomine I can outrun quite easily." Said Ishtar. "But this man will only pursue us well. He needs to be dealt with or made to retreat instantly. Besides."

Ishtar gritted her teeth as her face contorted into such frightening anger that Leo had the urge to bury himself in the ground and never come out. "Hurting my campers is right up there next to stealing even a few of my precious gems!"

"Oho? You've softened to humans of late, war goddess." growled Alcides as he clenched his bow tightly. "You cannot fool me. You who murdered Enkidu in petty reaction to Gilgamesh's refusal of your hand in marriage. The gods care nothing for man."

"Perhaps that was once true. But this girl who is my vessel has woken me up quite well." Ishtar growled as a massive orb of light began to dance around her palm. "Prepare yourself foolish servant! For right now, I am beyond reason!!!"

Ishtar disappeared in a flash of speed.

Before Leo could even blink or utter a thought in his mind, Ishtar reappeared behind Alcides and blasted him with an explosive beam of light from Maana. 

Leo could only feel his jaw drop as he watched Alcides exploded through the cieling, decimating what was left of it, and soar into the starry sky, while Ishtar turned into a blazing blue meteor of starlight, riding upon Maana as if she were merely floating next to it. 

Explosions filled the sky as Alcides twisted around in mid air and blasted around the sky like a pinball.

"He's leaping off air currents." grunted Archer. "Damn he really is on a whole other league.

But Ishtar was faster than Alcides, that much was certain, she darted through the air with immense ease as Alcides fired a multitude of arrows at her.